In which order do the events in the story happen? A good reader pays attention to sequence in order to make decisions about relationships or events in the text. A good reader also pays attention to how the author presents the sequence.

Main Idea and Details

What is the author specifically saying to the reader? What details are provided to help the reader understand the main idea? A good reader uses details to make a judgement about the main idea.

Cause and Effect

Cause: What made this happen? Why did the character act the way he/she did? Knowing the causes of events helps a good reader see the whole story and gives the reader information that helps predict possible outcomes.

Fact and Opinion

Fact: a statement that is provable

Opinion: a statement that is NOTprovable itself, but should be based on fact. Good readers use facts and opinions to determine if what they are reading is valid (logically correct).

Classify and Categorize

Putting like things together can help the reader understand the relationships set up by the author. Good readers put like actions, events, and characters together in order to make meaning from their relationships.

Drawing Conclusions

Take small pieces of information about a character/event and put these pieces together to make a statement about the character or event. Good readers use what is written to form ideas about what is NOT written, but implied by actions, words and/or events.

Making Inferences

Take information from the text, along with personal experience or knowledge, to understand what's happening in the story. Good readers put what they already know together with what is written in the text to understand the total picture of the story.

Compare and Contrast

unfamiliar ideas/thoughts/things with familiar ones to help understand the text. Good readers use their own experiences as the base for understanding those thoughts/ideas/things with they they are familiar.

Author's Point of View

Who is telling this story? First person = characters use I, me, my. Third person= characters referred to by name or he/she, him/her, it. Good readers are aware of who is telling the story in order to determine if they are getting the full picture or just as seen through the eyes of one character.

Author's Purpose

Why did the author write this? To entertain? To inform? to persuade? Knowing why a piece is written helps the reader generate an idea of what to expect; this also helps the reader to predict what the author might say.

Last Modified on March 26, 2013

Sedro-Woolley School District

Every student graduates with the knowledge and skills for future learning and success